Love ATC Box Tutorial

Happy Valentine's Day!! Today we are having a special blog hop on the Sizzix blog where the DT members have used dies from Eileen Hull's brand new collection From the Heart, together with dies from her previous collections. There are prizes to be won on the Sizzix blog too and the team has done a wonderful job as always. Don't miss all the other projects, so much inspiration!

If you follow my blog, you probably already know that I love Eileen's dies and all the things you can do with them. This time, I made an Artist Trading Card Box, filled with ATCs. I also used quite a few of other dies and lots of ink and stamps.

Here's the finished project. The Artist Trading Card Box die is such a great die, I can think of lots of things to do with it. I kept changing my mind about what colours to use on this project, finally deciding on a pretty traditional love colour combo. I made a step-by-step tutorial for how I did this:

 

The Artist Trading Card Box die is a movers & shapers die, so you can place other dies inside it and cut out a window. I used the label from Eileen's Heart & Label. Die cut the box from white mat board.

Stamp the vines from the Hero Arts Friend Collage stamp set and clear emboss, on both sides of the box, just remember to turn the stamp around when you stamp the back of the box.

Ink with Distress Inks and an ink blending tool. I used Antique Linen, Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet, Barn Door, Fired Brick and Vintage Photo. The embossed image resists the ink. Mat board inks beautifully.

Put a little bit of Picket Fence Distress Stain in a mini mister together with a small plastic bead (see this video by Tim Holtz for this fun technique). Shake and unscrew the mister. Tap the mister on your finger so that the ink splatters on your project. Dry with a heat gun, but be careful of burning the embossing powder.

When dry, stamp with a love definition stamp and Fired Brick ink. Hold the stamp in your hand instead of mounting it on a cling block, for a more random impression. I stamped it twice before inking it again.

Sentiments were stamped with Archival Jet Black ink on both sides and on the lid of the box.

I glued a piece of mica behind the label window, if you don't have mica, you can use vellum or acetate instead. For a vintage look, stain the acetate with alcohol ink. Place adhesive on both flaps. I used Wonder Tape. Assemble the box, which is very easy since the die both cuts and scores the mat board.

Time to make some flowers! Eileen has designed many flower dies, and it is fun to mix them with each other. I used the Wrapped Flower and cut a whole bunch of flowers from Core'dinations Kraft-Core, Tim Holtz tissue wrap, old book pages and dictionary page and tulle. I also die cut some flowers using the new Flower Layers w/Heart Petals die.

The Kraft-Core flowers were sanded, inked and shaped a bit, the dictionary flowers were inked and crumbled and the book page flowers were just inked. I crumbled up the tissue wrap flowers too, but didn't ink them (forgot to include them on this photo).

I used mainly Glossy Accents to assemble my flowers, starting from the flower centre and adding layer after layer, shaping the petals as I went a long. The last two layers are Heart Petal flowers and were glued to the rest with a hot glue gun, making sure some of the hot glue seeped up into the centre of the flower too.

I made two flowers and had enough to make a third one too. First I planned to use the bigger one on the ATC box, but it looked a bit too big on the box, so I picked the smaller one to the left instead. It has a flower trimmings centre.

The flowers were smeared with Distress Stickles Antique Linen.

Die cut leaves, a banner and a key from white cardstock, using the Hearts & More Sizzlits set.

Coat them with embossing ink and emboss with platinum embossing powder, melt and directly cover with a second layer of powder and heat again. Do one at a time and you'll have great little faux-metal embellishments. I did a heart too, from the same set of dies.

Glue the leaves to the box with Glossy Accents and the flower with hot glue.

I wanted the banner to just spell 'love' so I covered up everything except the heart with letter stickers. It was inked and glued over the label window.

 Here's a view of the box from the side.

The back of the box. I found different quotes about love, and used them on my ATCs.

Cut ATCs from smooth cream cardstock and stamp with Archival Jet Black ink. I used stamps from Tim Holtz, Darkroom Door and Artistic Outpost.

Ink the images with Distress Inks. I used a marker on the tiniest areas (the alphabet), a craft nib for the slightly larger areas (such as the flowers, birds and number) and an ink-blending tool everywhere else.

To add texture and bling, I applied Platinum Stickles and Crackle Accents on a few places on the cards. The quotes were printed on ledger paper and cut into strips.

You might see that there is Crackle Accents on the flowers. The crinkle ribbon was dyed with Distress Stains Victorian Velvet and Barn Door.

The lace trim was dyed with Antique Linen Distress Stain. There is Crackle Accents on the number and Platinum Stickles on the crown.

The flower trim was dyed with Antique Linen.

On this ATC I used an embossed key and a piece of twine. There is Platinum Stickles on the 'a'.

I am fond of using quotes, and this project was perfect for that.

Crackle Accents on the flowers and a pen nib pointing at the letter in the man's hand.

I am finishing the post with this lovely qoute and two happy birds.

These are the blogs you'll want to visit:

Eileen Hull

Amy Friend

Anna-Karin Evaldsson (you are here!)

Gretchen Schmidt

Hilary Kanwischer

Jan Hobbins

Jeanne Streiff

Richele Christensen

Shelly Hickox

Tammy Roberts

Tammy Tutterow

Tiffany Johnson

Sizzix Blog

Thank you for looking at this long post!!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:
Dies: Sizzix: Artist Trading Card Box, Wrapped Flower, Flower Layers w/Heart Petals, Heart & Label, Hearts & More Sizzlits set,
Surfaces: Sizzix Little Sizzles Mat Board white 6x13; Core'dinations Tim Holtz Kraft-Core cardstock; Tim Holtz Idea-ology Melange tissue wrap; Neenah cream smooth cardstock; old book and dictionary paper; tulle
Stamps: Hero Arts: Friend Collage AC022, Be SIlly CL635; Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz: Stuff to Say, The Boys, Love Struck; Darkroom Door: Love Letters Vol.1, Love Letters Vol. 2 Artistic Outpost Think & Wonder, Windows & Doors, Bluebird
Ink: Distress Ink: Antique Linen, Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet, Vintage Photo, Barn Door, Fired Brick; Archival Ink Jet Black; Ranger Emboss-It clear dabber
Stain: Distress Stain Antique Linen, Victorian Velvet, Barn Door, Picket Fence
Stickles: Platinum Stickles, Antique Linen Distress Stickles
Embossing powder: Ranger clear and platinum
Embellishments: Tim Holtz Idea-olgy trimmings ribbon; US ArtQuest Mica; lace trim; pearls
Adhesive: Ranger Glossy Accents, Crackle Accents, Wonder Tape; hot glue

Valentine Blueprints Accordion Card

Hi everyone! This week we are getting messy at Simon Says Stamp and Show. The challenge theme is 'something messy', which can be a lot of different things. I love to get messy and often walk around with blue or green hands, or as in the case of this accordion card, pink hands with a touch of Perfect Pearls. For this project, I decided to use ink mist, which is one of the messiest mediums (and lots of fun).

Since it is Valentine's day this week, I wanted to use my new Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz Valentine Blueprint stamps and decided to showcase them in Karen Burniston's fun Sizzix 3-D Flip Accordion Album.

Here's the finished album. The Accordion Album is such a great die, you can make a really large project with it, just out of a Bigz die. You can add as many pages as you need and it would work for any topic. I did a step-by-step tutorial on this album last month, you can find it here.

The technique I used for the misting and stamping is similar to what I did on this Just Add Pearl project. Die cut four panels from watercolour cardstock using the Bracket Frame & Label die, which coordinates perfectly with the Accordion Flip Album die. Stamp the four blueprint images on these with Archival Jet Black ink. Leave to dry for a little while, or help them along with a heat gun. Paint the areas you want to keep white with art masking fluid, using an old paint brush and immediately clean the brush. Leave to dry.

Working on one panel at a time, mist it first with water and then with Bubblegum Pink and Postbox Red Dylusions mists. The water help the mists to blend really nicely. When dry, mist again with Perfect Pearls mixed with water in a mini mister (or use ready-made Perfect Pearls mist).

When dry, rub off the masking fluid and see that it has resisted the ink mist perfectly. This is a very easy masking technique, and most other masks would take longer to make and would likely not resist the mist as well.

I wanted some colour on the masked areas, and painted them with distress inks applied to my craft sheet and misted lightly with water. I used Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap, and Barn Door.

I cut a fifth label from watercolour paper, white embossed a sentiment from Tim Holtz Love Struck set and misted in the same way as the others. The Accordion Album pages were die cut from Crowded Attic papers and stamped lightly with a love definition stamp from the same Tim Holtz set, using Frayed Burlap ink. The album is very easy to assemble, you can see step-by-step photos in my tutorial. For the front panel, I die cut the outer frame with the Bracket Frame die from another piece of patterned paper, and glued it on top, otherwise, the back of the patterned paper would have been visible.

The first panel both serves as the front page of the card, and shows as the first panel when the card is opened. I used wood veneer hearts, arrows and potty people as embellishments.

Every second panel connects with the other in front of or behind the frame of the card.

These stamps are awesome, the heart is my favourite, and will work real well on non-Valentine projects too.

The playing card will fit lots of other themes too, in fact, I have something totally different in mind for it for another project.

I placed Cupid on the last panel so that his arrow is aimed towards the other panels, leading the eye back in to the accordion card.

More wood veneer shapes. 

The ticket was stamped with Jet Black ink on a manila scrap which had been coloured with Distress Stains (Victorian Velvet, Antique Linen), and stapled to the frame of the card, so that it also peaks out with the accordion is closed.

Get messy this week and you can be the lucky one to win a $50 gift voucher from our fabulous sponsor Simon Says Stamp:

Thank you for stopping by! Enjoy your week!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:
Dies: Sizzix: Accordion Album 3-D Flip, Bracket Frame & Label, Mini Tickets
Stamps: Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz Valentine Blueprints, Love Struck
Surfaces: Tim Holtz Idea-ology Crowded Attic; Ranger Manila Cardstock; watercolour paper
Ink: Ranger Archival Jet Black; Distress Ink: Antique Linen, Frayed Burlap, Barn Door
Stain: Distress Stain Antique Linen, Victorian Velvet
Mist: Ranger Dyan Reaveley Dylusions Postbox Red, Bubblegum Pink
Embossing powder: Ranger Seafoam White
Perfect Pearls: Ranger Perfect Pearl
Embellishments: Studio Calico Wood Veneer Hearts & Arrows, Potty People
Other: Art masking fluid

Tools: Sizzix Big Shot; Ranger mini mister

CSI case file #58: Visiting my sister

Hello! I didn't get a chance to do my CSI: Color, Stories, Inspiration layout last week because of travelling. Since this is the second case file of the month, there is a Page Drafts sketch included in the file.This is our gorgeous case file for this week:

I had a hard time deciding what photos to use and story to tell, and started out with two different sets of sea/boat photos. Then I changed my mind and did a winter layout instead:

From the evidence items I used: woodgrain, metal, string, jewels, clouds, and something sheer. And from the testimony: document a getaway, escape. The photos were taken during a visit to to my sister and brother-in-law. They live in the forest and it is so peaceful and quiet there, which is why it feels like a getaway to me. The journaling is written on the tag and is about how cosy it is both inside and out. My sister is great at decorating her home with little details, and she loves vintage signs, which I tried to imitate on the layout.

I used a great new line of dies from Sizzix called Thinlits, wafer-thin dies which cut very detailed designs, and they come in a great little storage envelope. The clouds were die cut from vellum and then dry embossed. The tattered banner was die cut from a piece of scrap manila cardstock which had been coloured with distress stains. The little glass glitter covered star was also in my scrap box, a left over from this ATC project.

This border was also die cut with a Thinlits die, from Core'dinations ColorCore cardstock and inked with Gathered Twigs. I love this Birch wood patterned paper from BasicGrey, Birch trees are a favourite of mine. I embellished it a bit with stamping as usual.

The arrows were die cut from the same piece of manila scrap as the banner. To make the sign, I covered a piece of glossy cardstock with aluminum tape and die cut it with a new label die. It was painted with Juniper dabber, distressed a bit and then stamped with white paint and a chicken-wire background stamp. The sentiment was stamped with Stazon Jet Black ink.

A close-up of the sign. It is supposed to look a bit like the metal vintage signs my sister likes.

The banner was also die cut from the left-over manila cardstock and stamped with a star stamp and Tumbled Glass ink. Then 'at home' was stamped on top with brown ink.

This wavy patterned paper was also stamped with the chicken-wire stamp and white paint. The snowflake was stamped with Broken China ink. I wanted some snowflakes too, and die cut them from glossy cardstock covered with aluminium tape. They were painted lightly with white paint.

Thank you for the visit! Have a lovely weekend!'

Anna-Karin

Supplies:
Dies: Sizzix: Arrows, Banners, Chevrons & Clouds Thinlits, Borders Thinlits, Heart & Label, Tattered Banners, Mini Snowflakes, Primitive Stars, Tag & Tie
Embossing folder: Dot Matrix
Stamps: Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz Mixed Media; Hero Arts: Starry Sky S5448, Enjoy the Seasons CG210, Beautiful CL638, Heydey Sentiments 330053; PSX alphabet stamps
Ink: Distress Ink: Tumbled Glass, Broken China, Gathered Twigs; Stazon Jet Black
Stain: Distress Stain: Antique Linen, Tumbled Glass, Brushed Pewter
Paint: Adirondack Juniper and Snow Cap dabbers
Surfaces: Basig Grey, Studio Calico, FabScraps and Pink Paislee patterned papers; Core'dinations Distress ColorCore cardstock; Ranger manila cardstock; alumimium tape; vellum
Embellishments: rhinestones, twine, glass glitter

Winterfest

Hello!

This week, 9 February-17 February, Winterfest is taking place at the Stamping Board on Two Peas in a Bucket. It is one of three yearly events organised by the stamping board members themselves. You can find the master thread with all the challenges here. I am hosting a challenge, as usual, and this time I decided to revisit my challenge from Winterfest 2011, called Make a Scene. All the details for my challenge can be found here.

Happy stamping!

Anna-Karin

Off to Neverland

Hello! This week we have another fun challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Show, 'Ever after', focusing on being inspired by a fairytale, with lots of possibilities. This could be anything from a classic tale, a quote, being inspired by a fairytale character, or do a project with a once upon a time kind of story. I can't wait to see all the interpretations on this theme, and don't miss the wonderful projects of my DT team mates.

I had lots of fun making my layout:

 

I read a lot of stories to my son and thought it was a fun idea to let him fly to Neverland together with Peter and Wendy, on a layout. I used Artistic Outpost's Neverland stamps, background and sentiment stamps from Tim Holtz, and balloons and clouds from Hero Arts. I used Distress Stains, Distress Ink, die cuts, stamps and mists to create the little scene.

I used watercolour paper as the base of my layout since I knew I was going to use a lot of water. The houses were die cut from Eclipse tape using the Artful Dwellings die, which is a favourite of mine. Eclipse tape is great for masking and can handle a pretty large amount of water without anything seeping through. I adhered all the tape houses to the base of the layout, and then left them there until the background was done. I saved the negatives, since I wanted to use them too. The 'dream' was die cut with the Typeset die.

The clouds and moon were white embossed. The background was misted with water to help the Distress Stains blend and then I swept Distress Stains (Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky, Faded Jeans, and Chipped Sapphire) in a streaky motion over the paper, leaving some areas the white of the paper. I prepared two mists from Distress Stains, one with Picket Fence and one with Chipped Sapphire (Check this video by Tim Holtz for how to do this). When the background was starting to dry, I misted it with the Chipped Sapphire mist and then added some more when it was totally dry. You get a different effect when you mist on dry or wet paper. I also misted the background pretty heavily with Turquoise Perfect Pearls mist. When everything was dry again, I splattered it with the Picket Fence mist, by removing the mist applicator from the mini mister and tapping it against my finger.   

The balloons and Wendy and Peter were stamped with Archival Jet Black ink on Ranger's Specialty Stamping paper. When dry, they were coloured with Distress Inks (Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky) and cut them out. I cut off the stamped strings from the balloons and gave them real strings instead.

The background was stamped with sentiments and birds and I found a black and white photo of my son that worked real well. I cut it out and added a bit of Tumbled Glass to his shirt to make him blend in nicely.

When the background was done, I removed the Eclipse masks and painted the houses with a paint brush and Black Soot Distress Ink (applied to my craft sheet and misted with water). I left it to dry and then white embossed sentiments on some of the houses. Texture was added to the houses by stamping with different background stamps, using the negative Eclipse tape shapes of the houses as masks, to protect the background and surrounding houses.

Another sentiment was stamped on a Tattered Banner and a number one and windows were die cut from a Tim Holtz Mirrored Sheet.

Show us your projects inspired by fairy tales this week, and you could be the lucky one to win a $50 gift voucher from our sponsor Simon Says Stamp - or to be picked as one of our top three projects.

Thank you so much for the visit! I hope you will have a lovely week!

Happy Crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:
Stamps: Artistic Outpost Neverland, Think and Wonder; Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz: Ultimate Grunge, Warehouse District, Wallpaper & Wood, Mixed Media, Mini Ornates, Going Somewhere; Hero Arts: Halloween Moon CG369, Wish Big CL576,
Dies: Sizzix Artful Dwellings, Tattered Banners, Cargo Stencil Numbers Set, Mini Openings, Typeset
Ink: Distress Ink: Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky, Black Soot, Chipped Sapphire; Ranger Archival Ink Jet Black
Stain: Distress Stain: Tumbled Glass, Stormy Sky, Picket Fence, Chipped Sapphire, Faded Jeans
Mist: Ranger Perfect Pearls Turquoise
Embossing powder: Ranger Seafoam White
Adhesive: Judikins Eclipse Art Masking Tape,
Surfaces: Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Mirrored Sheets; Ranger Specialty Stamping Paper; watercolour paper
Embellishments: twine

Let your light shine

A new month and a new challenge at Craft a Scene. This month we are focusing on 'Letting your light shine', namely on lighthouses. I always liked lighthouses and the light in the dark that they give to lonely travelers on the sea.

My first scene for this month:

I wanted my lighthouse to shine on a hopeful sentiment which seemed to fit with the night of rough seas that the little boat has to navigate through. I used Stampscapes stamps on this scene and they were all stamped with Archival Jet Black ink on glossy cardstock. I used a stamp positioner for the sentiment, so make sure it was in the right place and that it was straight. The scene was coloured with dye inks using a Colorbox Stylus tool, as normally starting with the lightest shade (Aqua) and gradually building up colour. For this technique, see this tutorial or one of Kevin Nakagawa's videos.

I wanted a streaky impression of light shining on the sentiment and the Stylus tool works so well for that. I used a craft nib for some of the waves, to avoid colouring over the areas I wanted to keep white. The sky is dark and filled with stars, applied with a white gel pen. Finally, some mist and shine was added by dry-brushing white pigment ink on the scene. Have you seen the new Stampscapes stamps? They are awesome, I can't wait to start inking them up.

Thank you for looking and I hope you will join us this month!

Happy Stamping!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Stamps: Stampscapes: Fishing Boat 164A, Rocks and Waves 235E, Waves Medium 287E, Light, Rocks & Waves Sm. 306E, Sentiment Sheet 5

Ink: Ranger Archival Ink Jet Black; Distress Ink: Evergreen Bough, Broken China, Tumbled Glass; Adirondack: Aqua, Stream, Denim, Pitch Black

Surface: Kromekote glossy cardstock

CSI Birthday Blog Hop winner

Hi everyone! Sorry about the quiet days, I've been travelling, but now things are back to normal again. I am looking forward to getting inky and to play with my new Sizzix dies.

A huge thanks to everyone who celebrated with us this month and visited the CSI design team's blogs for our Birthday Presents Blog Hop. I really enjoyed reading all the comments on my layout. Winners have been announced here. Come see who won!

Thanks for making the birthday blog hop such a success!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin